I had watched the Taiwanese drama prior to this and although I quite enjoyed it, it definitely made use of a lot of cliches, beating around the bush, I had watched the Taiwanese drama prior to this and although I quite enjoyed it, it definitely made use of a lot of cliches, beating around the bush, and misunderstandings. It was basically a true melodrama, through and through, frustrations and all.
I expected the novel to stick pretty close to the drama and it certainly did, but I felt like the tensions, the emotions, the tragedies, the big reveals — none of them hit as hard as the drama did. The last one-third of the book also just felt really rushed, with a bunch of arcs that didn’t feel very fully developed.
I could barely get through this book — it was a lot of meandering and stream-of-consciousness style writing, and it was pretty much just tedious to reI could barely get through this book — it was a lot of meandering and stream-of-consciousness style writing, and it was pretty much just tedious to read until this girl in my class gave a presentation on how the character representated that of the flaneur (wanderer, memory) as a form of political dissent.
The other short stories, like Breakfast at Tiffany's, was more likable for me, but even then there's been other pieces of this writing by this author that I preferred....more
I had been so excited to read a book about Taiwan and about Asian Americans — and as I read this book, part of me still felt giddy at the references aI had been so excited to read a book about Taiwan and about Asian Americans — and as I read this book, part of me still felt giddy at the references and words that I understood. A lot of the messages about imposter syndrome, family expectations racism, etc...were relatable, but felt haphazardly thrown in at random moments and only seemed to scrape the surface of these stereotypes.
I felt like I was watching a k-drama from 2012, back when all the tropes were still fair game (chaebols, love triangles, poor woman/rich man, disapproving parents, the traitorous friend, truck of doom...) and this book hit almost all of them. To go along with that, I had terrible second lead syndrome; I kind of knew, from the blurb itself, that the book would be about Ever and Rick, but Xavier was just a much more intriguing character.
In fact, one thing that would've allowed me to enjoy this book much more was FRIENDSHIP. One thing I hate in books/movies is when the so-called "best friend" is introduced, and then they play practically no part in the story at all. Megan was a character that had no purpose, and obviously Sophie (view spoiler)[turned out to be downright toxic. (hide spoiler)]
Don't get me wrong — I love drama, but this book was just messy. I disliked Crazy Rich Asians for the same soap opera-ness of it, and this felt too much like a teen version of it....more
catherine ♡
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Books:
taiwan
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